The attorney for first lady Melania Trump’s parents confirmed on Thursday that the couple became U.S. citizens through “chain migration,” an immigration process previously lambasted by President Trump.

Michael Wildes, the attorney for the first lady’s parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs, told The New York Times on Thursday that their daughter had sponsored them for a green card, and that they applied for citizenship once they were eligible.

When asked if the couple became citizens through chain migration, Wildes replied, “I suppose. It’s a dirty — a dirtier word.”

“It stands for a bedrock of our immigration process when it comes to family reunification,” he told The Times.

The Knavs were sworn in as U.S. citizens earlier Thursday, during a ceremony in New York. The couple is from Slovenia, where Melania Trump was born and raised.

The Times noted that the couple would have to have their green cards for five years to become eligible for citizenship. Wildes told the newspaper that the Knavs fulfilled the five-year requirement, but declined to give further comment.

The president has called for an end to chain migration, which allows immigrants to become U.S. citizens on the basis of family reunification, demanding that it be included in any forthcoming immigration reform.

He seized on the policy after two terror attacks in New York City last year, claiming it posed a threat to national security. The suspect in an attempted bombing in the New York subway system in December had entered the U.S. through a visa for children of siblings of American citizens.

“Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives,” the president said during his State of the Union speech earlier this year. “Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. This vital reform is necessary, not just for our economy, but for our security and our future.”

It’s so simple, instead of crossing the border illegally or asking for asylum, just find someone in your family that’s a model, get her to marry a rich guy and then boom instant citizenship for everyone. Bootstraps people!

It’s so simple, instead of crossing the border illegally or asking for asylum, just find someone in your family that’s a model, get her to marry a rich guy and then boom instant citizenship for everyone. Bootstraps people!

Psst! No need to find a model, it's legal and goes on all the time with the lower classes with average-looking and ugly folks too.